behind the curtain at strawberryfrog, part one

First, the unrelated to advertising good news: the Netherlands stuffed world champions Italy yesterday 3-0…as in, the worst defeat Italy has suffered since the 1970 World Cup, as in the first Dutch victory over the Italians in eight matches, as in the best possible way to spend a Monday afternoon.

I am thoroughly exhausted, but quite content.

Speaking of Holland, I had the opportunity last week to have an email conversation with Scott Goodson and Kevin McKeon of Amsterdam-headquartered global hot shop StrawberryFrog about their agency, being independent and why they have account people.

PART I / The role of account people

Scott and Kevin, thank you for your time. Let’s start with the account team…I ask because I just learned that Zeus Jones doesn’t have them and am curious how you view their role? How does the account side continue to add value in a changing marketing world and in an innovative shop like yours?

We’ve always seem the role of the account person as one of the most important to the entire process. At StrawberryFrog we want them to be brilliant at creatively solving business problems.

We built the agency around an open-room principle. From this platform emerges speed, friendship, respect and all the important things that are needed to make it happen. [The New York office is] housed in a large open space in the penthouse of a building on Madison Avenue and it allows us to work with a lot of motivation, inspiration and knowledge because it’s all open and everyone is mixed together. Everyone knows and appreciates each other’s work and if anyone is called away of feeling ill someone can come in and keep the process going.

We seem to keep twice as many accounts around a single account person as a traditional agency without, I dare say, losing creativity. I would say that the role of the account people is to gain creativity and freshness because our team is moving forward all the time.

StrawberryFrog is built user-friendly. People are truly responsible for the client’s business. We think it makes our people feel more confident and more like they are making a difference which is important because the client is not sold ideas. The client is there to work with us on ideas. An Account Director is the team leader, the curator leading our cultural movement process, which liberated creativity and delivers effective communications.

In today’s cut-throat environment, former fame and glories are overshadowed by the ability to out-innovate while delivering business results. What StrawberryFrog account people have done is understand that the traditional agencies and their structures do not stand for the systems of the future. The old way is expensive and time consuming, egotistical and pretentious. All the times that we think lead to bad work and bad creativity.

Stay tuned for parts two and three as your neighborhood ad blogs digs deeper with StrawberryFrog (aka the agency you secretly wish you worked at).

four interview tips for creatives

We are in desperate need of quality art directors here at the House of Biz and have been interviewing candidates non-stop all week. So far, to no avail.

Yesterday afternoon I was asked to sit with a candidate who had been referred by a friend of one of the partners. Though he came from a promotions background and his work was only so-so, we need hands on deck. And he was recommended.

God knows why.

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The first tip for interviewing: do NOT passionately tell your interviewer about all of the people who have fucked you in your career.

Sure, we have all had people along the way on whose evil ways we could discourse for hours (like Jane Sample). But that is for your own personal time, not for an interview. Not only does it make me think that you have no self-control, do not know what is appropriate in a business setting and that you are overly-emotional, I also start to think, as the number of people you are listing piles up, that maybe the issue is with you.

The second tip for interviewing: if you have been fired by your last agency, say only what you have to about what happened.

Fifteen minutes spent discoursing about how the account team didn’t fight for your work hard enough and management didn’t support you and the client was an idiot is not making me think that you would be a good addition to this team. It makes me think that you need some sort of medication.

The third tip for interviewing: when asked about difficult clients you have had to deal with, tell me about one that turned out okay, not the one that got you fired.

Interestingly, this guy had worked on (at the promotions agency) the same QSR client that I had worked on a while back (at the ad agency). This QSR client was extremely challenging and was the worst work experience of my life. But I didn’t get fired because I couldn’t handle it. And anyway, I want to know that you can handle a difficult client since, sorry, you are going to have more than one in your life. I don’t want to know that you couldn’t stand the heat while I could. Not a good way to sell yourself.

The fourth tip for interviewing: be ready to talk about ads and campaigns that you like.

The key here is things that YOU like. Do not repeat back to me ads and campaigns that I may have mentioned earlier in the interview. Do not blow smoke up my ass by mentioning things that you saw in the lobby and know that I worked on. It will not overcome the fact that you freaked out and word vomited your anger at past employers all over me.

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This guy broke these four key rules so badly that it makes me question the quality of the shops that employed him.

I wonder if he was on drugs.